


How To Smuggle a Cat Into Your Dorm in 2 Easy Steps

by merthurs_babe



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Merthur - Freeform, Smuggling cats, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 11:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3118025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merthurs_babe/pseuds/merthurs_babe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin needs help smuggling his cat into his dorm. Arthur is there to save the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How To Smuggle a Cat Into Your Dorm in 2 Easy Steps

This was probably one of Merlin’s worst thought-out plans ever.

Well, he can’t technically say that until it’s over. He has to wait until he figures out if he succeeded or failed, before he can say for sure. Either way, this plan was a horrible one. He wasn’t even sure he could completely pull this off without help, but it was worth a shot.

Who knew smuggling a cat into a uni dorm would be so difficult?

Besides that, what he really needed was someone to distract the desk lady, so he can get his cat past her. She was a stickler for what people brought in here. She made sure whatever someone brings into the building is actually allowed—she has a list posted by her desk saying what one can/can’t bring inside.

To put it simply, cats were on the ‘Not-Allowed-In-The-Dorm’ category. The thing was, he had to get his cat into his room somehow or she was going to be sent to the shelter. At first, his parent kept his cat Jinglebells while he was away for university, but then Jinglebells started acting up and they couldn’t keep her any longer.

They told this to Merlin, and gave him the option of taking Jinglebells to university with him or let them take her to the shelter. He opted for the first option, obviously. He didn’t know at the time that cats weren’t allowed, but he knew Jinglebells wouldn’t cause a huge ruckus if she was with him. Well, let’s just hope she doesn’t at least.

And that’s how he ended up standing in front of the building where he lived with his cat in a box. He added a few blankets inside the box to make it look like he was sent some of them by his parents, but he knew it wouldn’t slide. That’s why Merlin was in desperate need of help.

He sighed in frustration, realizing for a fact that it wasn’t going to work. He should’ve let his parents take her away—it would’ve been easiest. But he didn’t want to think like that. He was going to get his cat into his dorm if it killed him.

This is it.

He was going to go inside.

Just as he was about to start his journey to go inside, a blonde around his age shuffled past him and started up the stairs, paying no attention to Merlin. Merlin’s eyes widened, and he immediately whisper-screamed at stranger. “Hey! _Psst_.” The blonde paused at the door, his hand on the door-knob. He turned his head back around in confusion. His eyebrows raised slightly when he saw Merlin beckoning for him to come over.

He looked to the door, then back at Merlin before coming down the steps slowly. The puzzled look on his face never left the whole trip down the steps. “Erm, can I help you?” He spoke in hushed tones, since Merlin had whispered for him to get his attention.

Merlin’s cheeks flushed and his looked at the box in his hands. He felt his cat move inside the box, making the man look at it in surprise. “Uh, yeah. Thank you for acknowledging me, first of all. I’m Merlin, in case you were wondering.”

“Arthur Pendragon?” The blonde gave his name with uncertainty, his head tilting to the side. “What’s in the box?” Merlin laughed awkwardly, biting the inside of his cheek.

“Haha, yeah. Funny story. It’s my cat. I have to sneak her into my dorm. Do you think you can distract the desk-lady so I can sneak past with her?” Arthur opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. He was clearly not expecting that as an answer.

“Well, I—”

“Please! This is the only time I will ever bother you! I just really need your help or they’re going to take her away to a shelter!” Merlin would get on his knees to plead to this stranger, but that would be a bit difficult considering the circumstances. He just hoped Arthur had the heart to help him with this one task.

“Okay, I’ll help. Do I at least get to see your cat?” Merlin sucked in a breath of relief, praising the gods above for this man. He had to forcefully try to keep himself from grinning. Arthur, however, had an amused expression on his face now. Merlin almost forgot to respond.

“Uh, yes! If you want to. My dorm is room 317, so come on up _if_ this plan works.” Arthur chuckled softly, nodding.

“Sure. Oh, here. Take this.” Merlin watched Arthur take his wallet out and proceeded to hand Merlin his student ID. “I’ll say I lost my student ID. Sound like a plan?” Merlin couldn’t help but grin at this, accepting the ID.

“Yeah. This is great! Thank you so much.” Arthur nodded, before he started walking away. Merlin began to follow, but Arthur held his hand out.

“You’ve got to wait. It’ll be suspicious if we both go in at the same time. Wait like a minute.” He stopped at his place, giving a silent agreement as Arthur disappeared in the building. Merlin counted out a minute, and then slowly treaded up the stairs to the building. He pulled the door opened slowly, and found that Arthur was talking to the lady in bewildered voice. Arthur didn’t look away from the desk-lady, which was impressive. He totally would’ve looked.

Slowly, he started walking casually towards the stairs, making out the words, “I’ve honestly looked everywhere. I can’t find it. You can check my wallet!” from Arthur’s voice.

Merlin took a deep breath to keep himself from have an anxiety attack. He didn’t need that right now. He wondered if anyone could hear how fast his heart was beating at the moment.

Merlin was halfway towards his goal now.

Arthur continued to keep her attention away from Merlin, surprisingly. He was just about to make it to the stairs to go up to third for when the desk-lady called out. “Stop! Where do you think you’re going with that box?” He froze in panic, gulping.

“Uh, to my dorm, ma’am. I’ve just got some blankets from my parents in the mail.” He turned around slowly and saw Arthur was throwing his fists in the air in frustration, probably cursing at the lady in his head. Merlin kept his gaze on the woman, who started towards him.

“I want to check to make sure.” If it was possible, his heart was beating faster.

“S-Sure.” The woman almost reached him, when Merlin saw Arthur kneed his knee against the desk really hard. Merlin winced at what he just did.

“AH!” Arthur shouted painfully, interrupting the desk-lady from checking the box in Merlin’s hand. He watched Arthur bend down to hold his knee as the desk-lady flipped around and rushed over to him.

“Oh, my lord. Are you alright?” Merlin realized that Arthur was giving him a chance to escape. He immediately took the chance and rushed up the stairs, leaving the sound of (hopefully) fake groans of pain coming from Arthur in the dust.

***

Merlin pressed his face into his pillow, trying to control his rapid heart rate. He made it to his room successfully, and hasn’t moved from his bed since. All he was focusing on doing now was calm his beating heart.

He should say he was shocked that he pulled it off, but it was really Arthur that made it possible. He was definitely in debt to this blonde for life.  Jinglebells was safe and so was he.

Everything worked out perfectly.

It was only when a knock on his door brought him from his thoughts that he started to spiral in panic again. Slowly, he got up from his bed, motioning for his cat to go under his bed. Jinglebells followed his order and crawled under his bed. Merlin started tip-toeing to the door again when the knock sounded for a second time. This time a voice accompanied it. “Merlin, it’s me. Arthur.” Merlin let out a sigh of relief and went to open the door.

Arthur was standing there with his arms crossed, grinning. “Hello, there,” he paused, leaning closer to whisper. “I came to see your cat.”

“O-Okay. Come in.” Merlin motioned for him to come inside, closing the door behind him. He bit his lip when Arthur flopped onto his bed, and his cat came shooting out from under his bed. Arthur immediately smirked.

“Ah, so it really was a cat. I was beginning to think it was drugs or something.” Merlin gasped, waving his hands around.

“No! No, I wouldn’t ever. I don’t do—”

“Relax. I was only joking. What’s your cat’s name?” Arthur got off the bed to sit down on the floor. Cautiously, Jinglebells slowly approached him.

“Jinglebells.” Merlin blushed as Arthur let out a cackle.

“ _Jinglebells_? Jesus, Merlin.” Arthur slapped his knee as he laughed again. Merlin sat down next the newcomer, gulping.

“I’ve had her since I was a kid. My parents let me name her. Worst decision, I’d say.” Arthur nodded in agreement as Jinglebells came up to him.

“She’s pretty cute, I must say.” Merlin reached over to pet her behind the ear, smiling widely.

“She is. I love her so much.” Merlin stopped, trying to think of what to say next. “Oh, thank you so much for helping me. You are a life saver, literally.” Arthur brushed it off, shrugging.

“It was nothing. Not every day do I get to be apart of a top secret mission to smuggle a cat into uni.” He had to slap his forehead for how stupid his situation sounded in those terms. It was worth it in the end, though.

“Sorry about your knee, though. You didn’t have to hit it against the desk like that.” Arthur grinned, patting his knee.

“It’s fine. Method acting, as I’ve learned in my classes. I’m a theater major, so it was no problem acting it out.” Merlin smiled in relief.

“Thank god. I didn’t want to be responsible for you having to get a knee-replacement or something.”

“My knee is fine. It doesn’t hurt.” Arthur explained, scratching his cat behind ear. It got silent again, Merlin attempting to think of what to say, but then remembered.

“Um, I’m in debt to you. Probably for the rest of my life for this, you know.” The blonde shook his head, chuckling.

“No, you aren’t. A simple thank you was fine by me.”

“That’s – No. I have to repay you somehow. Please?” Merlin offered, clasping his hands together on his lap. Arthur paused, looking over with a smirk.

“Okay. Have dinner with me, then.” Merlin’s eyes widen, and he stared at the blonde dumbfounded.

“What?”

“You heard me. Have dinner with me sometime.” He could feel his cheeks start to heat up as he nodded shyly.

“O-Okay. It’s, erm, it’s a date, then?”

“Yes. Precisely.”

“Oh.” Merlin scratched the nape of his neck, his cheeks on fire. “Okay. Yeah. That’s cool. Dinner. With you. That sounds nice.” Arthur patted Merlin’s thigh as he started standing up.

“Hah, yeah. I’ll knock on your door sometime. We’ll go out. However, I’ve got to go now. I was supposed to be helping my roommate with this present for his girlfriend, so I should probably go help him now. It was really nice meeting you, by the way. I’ll forward to that date, Merlin.” Arthur gave him a wink and then he disappeared, leaving Merlin alone before he could even get a word out.

All he could do was look towards his cat that was staring at him already. “Arthur Pendragon. He is something, ain’t he?” Merlin spoke softly and Jinglebells only stared at him in response, causing Merlin to laugh and start to run his hand through her fur. “I just hope he comes by again sometime.” Merlin murmured as he gave his full attention to the cat he just smuggled into his dorm with said Arthur.

Deep in his heart, he admitted to himself that he actually had fun sneaking his cat inside, and he wouldn’t have changed a single thing.


End file.
